A JUMBO DEADLOCK

A FEW YEARS AGO, WILD ELEPHANTS ARRIVED IN A KARNATAKA DISTRICT AND MADE IT THEIR HOME. LOCALS, WHO EARLIER WELCOMED THEM, ARE NOW WORRIED AS CROP DAMAGES AND MAN-ANIMAL CONFLICTS GROW

- AJAY SUKUMARAN

It is almost nine on an early January morning, and the day has begun in earnest in Sakleshpur, a town located at the edge of the Western Ghats in Karnataka's Hassan district. Sachin Gowda, a planter, is getting his 10-year-old son ready for school. It's the land of coffee-in the front yard of Gowda's estate home laid out to dry in the winter sun are coffee berries from the first pickings of the season, which will stretch till February. Soon, the plants will blossom and clothe the undulating terrain in a sea of white, stringy flowers. By now, the picking of berries should have been in full swing. But Gowda has given the day off to his workers, fearing for their safety. A herd of 26 elephants has moved into the plot abutting his house-for the umpteenth time in the past three years. The manager of a neighbouring estate momentarily drops by to enquire whether the elephants have crossed over. "Leave me a message when they have moved, brother. I have workers in my field," he says. Since morning, most neighbours in the vicinity of Kirehalli, where the matriarch, locally known as Beetamma, and her herd are camping, have asked the same of Gowda.